Yue Wares of Southern China, also known as Green Wares of Southern China
By Regina Krahl, Published by the Smithsonian Museum's Sackler Gallery.
Yue Wares are the world’s oldest ceramics that are hard, dense, and durable—the ultimate predecessors of porcelain. China is unique in its development of these stonewares, which preceded any comparable products in the West by almost 3,000 years. The igneous rocks and volcanic ashes left in particular in the southeastern provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong from volcanic activity some 140 million years ago constitute highly suitable raw materials for producing such wares. They often can be used more or less as mined or can be easily processed by levigation, in which coarse particles are sifted out.1
The potters’ decisive step towards the creation of porcelain was therefore not an improved recipe for the ceramic material but the development of a wood-burning kiln that could achieve high enough firing temperatures (greater than 1,200 degrees C) to make the material “vitrify,” i.e., melt into an impermeable, hard substance. The origins of such “high-fired” wares can be traced to China’s Bronze Age, after the middle of the second millennium BCE. The earliest glazes on these stonewares developed naturally due to wood ash falling onto the hot vessel surface during firing, where it could react with the clay and melt into a glaze. Such fortuitous appearances of “kiln gloss” were imitated by mixing wood ash with clay slips to create proper lime glazes that could be applied more evenly over the vessel before firing. Due to the iron content in these mixtures, the glazes turned olive green in the kiln.
Yue Ware of the Belitung Wreck
The ceramics recovered from the Belitung wreck include some 900 pieces of green-glazed stoneware from southern China, comprising a large group of massive storage containers and a smaller number of tablewares. The former served as packing cases for more valuable goods and were probably not intended for sale on their own; they may have been reused for several voyages. The latter constituted a precious part of the cargo. These fine green tablewares come from two different coastal regions in the southeast of China: from areas in Zhejiang, south of Shanghai, and in Guangdong, east of Guangzhou (Canton), both closely situated to international ports.
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Among the earliest workshops for green-glazed stonewares are those of the Yue region of Zhejiang province. Yuezhou is the historical name of the area around Shaoxing, south of Hangzhou Bay, where kilns have operated at least since early historic times (the Shang dynasty, circa 1600–circa 1050 BCE). In the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), the wares began to display a distinct style and identity. During the Six Dynasties period (220–589) the kilns’ production was boosted in quality and quantity when all six southern dynasties chose nearby Nanjing as their capital. But in spite of its excellent quality, which had no match in China or anywhere else in the world, this ceramic ware—like all ceramics at that time—does not seem to have been regarded very highly for either its aesthetic or practical value and instead was used mainly for burial purposes.
With the foreign-ruled north perhaps more open to innovation, the development of ceramics made a great step forward around the sixth century. Stonewares comparable in quality to those from the south but now in three different colors—olive green, black, and white—began to be made in northern China. The Yue ware production experienced a temporary setback. Examples from the early Tang period (618–907) are rare. Even tombs in the south were temporarily furnished with earthenwares of lesser quality but more vivid coloration, which were more striking in appearance and therefore probably more prestigious.2
When Yue ware production of Southern China recovered in the eighth century, it was with refined ceramics for the living. By that time, China had a native class of discerning connoisseurs with an interest in exquisite utensils for daily use, as well as a sizeable international community of merchants seeking valuable products to export. Both groups appear to have discovered the quality of China’s ceramics around the same time. With more than 2,000 years of experience in making green-glazed stonewares, the Yue area became one of the spearheads of China’s ceramic industry, and the name Yue ware emerged as a brand name for fine ceramics.
The Influence of Tea on Yue Ware
The appreciation of ceramics as a precious material was closely connected with the growing popularity of tea, a beverage probably introduced together with Buddhism in the first centuries of the Common Era. The celebration of tea was linked with Chan (Zen) Buddhist ceremonies: tea was drunk during meditation, with incense burning alongside, in temples and in elegant homes. In his famous eighth-century manual on the art of tea-drinking, Chafing (The Classic of Tea), the poet and tea connoisseur Lu Yu (730s–circa 804) ranks Yue ware tea bowls highest, since their blue-green glaze enhances the tea’s color.3 This smooth, shiny glaze in varied tones of green evoked the beauty and preciousness of polished jade. Following Lu Yu, a number of poets celebrated Yue ware in their writings, mostly in the ninth century.4 By the time the Belitung ship set sail, Yue wares were highly popular in China as superior vessels for food and drink, as well as medicine, incense, cosmetic, and writing utensils, among other uses. Their only true competitors were white Xing wares from Hebei, and the choice between the two was primarily a matter of taste.
Sometime before 874, the imperial household selected Yue ware to donate to the Famensi near Xi’an, one of the empire’s most important temples, as it held one of the holiest Buddhist relics. This so-called mise (“secret color”) ware represented the peak of the kilns’ production, a stage they reached not long after the Belitung ship was loaded. Yue is said to have been the official ware of the kings of Wu-Yue, who ruled the Zhejiang region during the Five Dynasties period (907–60). When the Song (960–1279) established their rule over China, this southern kingdom sent mise ceramics as tribute to the court, hoping to prolong its independence, which indeed it was able to keep until 978. With strong competition from the north, closer to the new seats of power, however, the Yue kilns eventually declined around the eleventh century.
Although some Yue ware may thus have reached imperial tables, the greater part of the kilns’ output was not for official use. Evidence of its use in China is altogether scarce, as the practice of furnishing tombs with lavish burial goods dramatically declined in the latter part of the Tang. Yue vessels are therefore rarely found in tombs, although the kilns manufactured some stoneware epitaphs expressly for burial.5 Far more important are the finds from settlement sites along China’s coast. Yue wares have been discovered in smaller numbers at Yangzhou, where many foreigners had settled6; and in large quantities at Ningbo (former Mingzhou) in Zhejiang, a lesser-known port in closest vicinity to the kilns, which has been particularly well researched. Ningbo yielded Yue ware shards in four different stratified layers, with vessels closely related to those of the Belitung wreck in two of them.7 (See figs. 128–129.)
As recently as 1994, Lin Shimin, the main archaeologist of the area, wrote that Ningbo harbor had provided a denser concentration of good-quality Yue ware shards than the kilns themselves. Even if this may no longer be the case, due to a more thorough investigation of the kiln sites, it attests to the importance of export for Yue production. Evidence of the maritime trade in Yue ware comes not only from harbor sites but also from other shipwrecks, although no comparable wreck has been fully researched. Very similar wares are reported to have been recovered from a wreck, probably of similar date, in the sea near Ningbo, which was not fully raised.8 More than 3,000 Yue ware fragments found at the Penghu archipelago between Fujian province and Taiwan derive from a ship believed to have sunk more than a century later, shortly after 977.9
The Export of Yue Ware
From the late eighth century onward, Chinese ceramics appear in some quantity all along the Iranian coast as well as inland, and less plentifully on the Gulf’s Arabian coast, in Mesopotamia, and farther west, in northern Africa.10 Rich sites predating the tenth century include Fustat in the southern suburbs of modern Cairo in Egypt, which has brought to light Chinese ceramics from as early as the ninth century; Samarra in Iraq, finds from which are believed to date largely from the period between 836 and 892, when the town was capital of the Abbasid Empire; and Siraf on the Iranian coast, which has yielded ceramics dating from circa 800 onward that include a greater percentage of Chinese examples than the other two sites. Even if many of the Persian and Arab sites mainly contain somewhat later Chinese material, they generally display a similar combination of wares as was found on the Belitung wreck. Quantitatively, however, Yue and other fine Tang green wares, as well as Xing and other Tang white wares, appear to have played a far more important role in these regions than the Belitung cargo suggests. The overwhelming predominance on the wreck of Changsha ware in relation to other wares is certainly not reflected in finds from Near Eastern sites and may suggest that part of this cargo was meant to be off-loaded elsewhere on the way.11 Yue ware fragments of the ninth century are rare in Southeast Asia but were found at port sites in Thailand.12 Yue wares found in Indonesia tend to be either of earlier or of later date, although Changsha bowls and ewers like those on the Belitung wreck are known from many excavations there.
Yue Ware Kilns
Several hundred Yue kilns have been discovered along the Bay of Hangzhou, in particular around the shores of Shanglin Lake (Shanglinhu) southeast of Cixi, in close vicinity to Ningbo. Of some 200 kilns operating there mainly throughout the Tang and Song dynasties, the majority has now been investigated.13 These discoveries point overwhelmingly to this kiln group as the production area of the Yue wares on the Belitung wreck.
The examples of Yue ware recovered are well made, finely finished, and represent the best quality available at the time. Potting is delicate; the body material is carefully prepared and has been fired to a light gray or yellowish-buff color and, at times, can be almost white; the glaze is thinly and evenly applied, yellowish to olive green, and occasionally grayish or bluish green due to partial reduction of oxygen in the firing. Not all pieces are exactly alike in type and quality, but outright flaws are not noticeable. Variations may reflect the production of different individual kilns, but the wide range of states of preservation makes further identification difficult, and not enough comparative material has been published from individual kiln sites to enable more precise kiln attribution.
The Yue ware shapes on board (like those of Xing ware) were largely designed for Chinese rather than foreign habits and tastes and were most probably not made to foreign order. Only three pieces—a begonia-shaped bowl (fig. 135), a slop jar (fig. 54), and a basin (fig. 133)—are outstanding in terms of size and might reflect a Near Eastern preference for larger vessel shapes. They, too, are Chinese forms, even though the intended usage of a begonia-shaped bowl of this size has yet to be established. For many of the forms, more or less closely related versions are known in silver or gold; in some cases the closest versions are pieces found on the wreck itself, and they may have been made in a nearby region.14
Both metal and ceramic vessels show the predilection for lobed floral forms characteristic of the late Tang period. All lobed green-ware pieces in this cargo are four-lobed except for one single dish (fig. 54, far right); five-lobed shapes became popular in south China somewhat later. Though such lobed shapes often are explained as copies of metal forms, they are equally
trade in Yue ware comes not only from harbor sites but also from other shipwrecks, although no comparable wreck has been fully researched. Very similar wares are reported to have been recovered from a wreck, probably of similar date, in the sea near Ningbo, which was not fully raised.8 More than 3,000 Yue ware fragments found at the Penghu archipelago between Fujian province and Taiwan derive from a ship believed to have sunk more than a century later, shortly after 977.9
From the late eighth century onward, Chinese ceramics appear in some quantity all along the Iranian coast as well as inland, and less plentifully on the Gulf’s Arabian coast, in Mesopotamia, and farther west, in northern Africa.10 Rich sites predating the tenth century include Fustat in the southern suburbs of modern Cairo in Egypt, which has brought to light Chinese ceramics from as early as the ninth century; Samarra in Iraq, finds from which are believed to date largely from the period between 836 and 892, when the town was capital of the Abbasid Empire; and Siraf on the Iranian coast, which has yielded ceramics dating from circa 800 onward that include a greater percentage of Chinese examples than the other two sites. Even if many of the Persian and Arab sites mainly contain somewhat later Chinese material, they generally display a similar combination of wares as was found on the Belitung wreck. Quantitatively, however, Yue and other fine Tang green wares, as well as Xing and other Tang white wares, appear to have played a far more important role in these regions than the Belitung cargo suggests. The overwhelming predominance on the wreck of Changsha ware in relation to other wares is certainly not reflected in finds from Near Eastern sites and may suggest that part of this cargo was meant to be off-loaded elsewhere on the way.11 Yue ware fragments of the ninth century are rare in Southeast Asia but were found at port sites in Thailand.12 Yue ware found in Indonesia tend to be either of earlier or of later date, although Changsha bowls and ewers like those on the Belitung wreck are known from many excavations there.
Several hundred Yue kilns have been discovered along the Bay of Hangzhou, in particular around the shores of Shanglin Lake (Shanglinhu) southeast of Cixi, in close vicinity to Ningbo. Of some 200 kilns operating there mainly throughout the Tang and Song dynasties, the majority has now been investigated.13 These discoveries point overwhelmingly to this kiln group as the production area of the Yue wares on the Belitung wreck.
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